Day 98: Galapagos. Underwater

May 16, 2006

Ask any experienced diver about his/her dream diving destination, and you
will hear "the Galapagos!" What makes this dream hard to follow
is its high price - literally: at least $300 for a plane ticket from Ecuador,
another $100 to enter the National Park Territory, living on the islands is
not very cheap either, not to mention that in order to fly to the islands,
you have to first somehow get to Ecuador Diving itself is quite expensive,
too. The most common deal is $130 for a day trip with 2 air tanks, but it
is possible to come across a better offer, like the same $130 for a 3-tank
trip. However, if you are already there, missing diving would be unjustifiable.

There are plenty of dive sites around the islands, but ask anyone where to
go if you can afford just one trip, and you will for sure be advised to choose
Rocas Gordon. The reasoning is simple: there are very strong currents around
the Gordon Rocks, the currents bring food, food attracts impressive marine
life - like big schools of hammerhead sharks - and sharks attract divers :)
No wonder that the majority of dive shops in Puerto Ayora offer daily trips
to Rocas Gordon, while other dive sites are much less popular.

A typical trip to Rocas Gordon includes a 1.5-hour ride on a nice boat (sometimes
bus & boat) to the site, all the diving equipment, 2 or 3 air tanks (depending
on the deal), and lunch onboard. In other words, it is a perfect deal
except if you are a freshly certified diver with little experience, like us
:) The problem with beginner divers is that in order to dive at Rocas Gordon,
you must have a record of at least 20 dives in your diver's logbook. 25 dives
would be much better, while 30 is the recommended minimum. We tried showing
our logbooks with the rich history of 17 dives to a number of dive shops,
but all of them gave us the same answer: sorry, diving in the strong currents
is very dangerous, it takes special skills and more experience than you currently
have. The fact that we had previously dived only in the calm waters of the
Caribbean made the things only worse. All things considered, we were told
to forget about Rocas Gordon.

It was quite a leap of faith when having booked a 3-tank package to other
dive sites we ended up diving at the Gordon Rocks! :) (A big thanks to the
divemaster, who had his heart hopelessly set on Rocas Gordon and, after putting
us through a test, decided we deserved a chance to see his favorite place).
Now that we have been there, we can only agree with the existing restrictions:
diving in strong currents is quite unusual indeed, and it is only for your
own good that you are not allowed to dive there if you do not have enough
experience. The general rules are simple: jump into the water, stay calm,
go down as fast as you can and immediately cling to the rocks to avoid being
carried miles away from the boat. Then relax and enjoy the company of turtles,
sea lions, whale sharks, hammerheads, white tip reef sharks, sting rays, golden
rays, eagle rays, invertebrates, morays, garden eels, reef fish, pelagic fish
and even whales in the right season!
Unfortunately, neither going down fast nor staying calm underwater is easy
- the currents around there are so strong that no matter how hard you try
to keep your poor self attached to the rocks, sooner or later you get tired,
let go and start drifting away from the fellow divers at an impressive speed.
Forget about the relaxation - what you are doing down there is mostly trying
to survive!!

The second and third dives were much better - we somewhat got used to the
currents and had an unforgettable experience hanging on to the rocks and watching
huge hammerhead sharks circling right above us. The visibility was not very
good, which was actually for the better, because seeing fewer sharks was less
scary :)

Tip #1: Ninfa Tours offer 3-tank dive trips for the price of 2. For
$130 you get two dives at the same site (on most days Rocas Gordon), and one
at a different site. Located across the street from TAME. Brand new equipment,
nice boat, friendly staff and tasty lunch :)

Tip #2: Most dive sites are far away from Puerto Ayora, so get ready
for a long and bumpy boat ride. Don't forget those motion sickness pills,
ginger or whatever gets you through those rough waters.

Tip #3: Some cruise ships double as dive boats. It is a great idea
to combine diving with a cruise. This way you have more fun on the cruise,
save the time which you would otherwise waste getting to the dive sites on
daily dive tours, and get a chance to dive at more remote sites that cannot
be reached from Puerto Ayora. Free Enterprise is a dive boat. You have to
book the dives in advance because they have to bring the equipment aboard.

Click on the pictures to enlarge(since
we do not have any underwater pictures of our own, we borrowed all of them
from the below indicated sources):

The divers

Narai

A mystery fish (borrowed from Awoosh.com)

Neatpazinta zuvis

Galapagos fur seal (borrowed from Oceanlight.com -
a large gallery of marine life photos by Phillip Colla)

Gauruotasis ruonis

Whale shark, the biggest known fish on the planet (Borrowed
from Scubaland.com)